I am so excited to have Jamie on the blog! She is a mommy to two boys- bless her! And I love her thoughts on how to manage birthdays and holidays and when they land on the same day. You can check about more from Jamie on her blog here. Thanks for sharing your ideas and we hope your little turkey had a great birthday!
A year of blessings,
laughter and fun,
our little turkey
is turning one!
Birthdays and Holidays go together like…
…Black and Navy Blue.
Oh wait, they don’t go together…or do they…hmm…they seem so different at first, like they should clash and send you running for a new outfit…but the crazy thing is, if done right, they compliment each other.
…Pickles and Ice Cream.
These are also not supposed to go together, and yet…for a certain season of life there are many people who swear by it and love the contrasting combination.
…Bitter and Sweet.
That’s right…seems like they conflict…until you take a bite of that dark chocolate delight and all of a sudden it makes sense.
…Fries and Frosty’s
Again, it makes no sense, until you TRY it!
I could go on…but you get the idea.
I grew up with a double wammy in the holiday/birthday sharing department. December 30th…close enough to Christmas to ruin the gift portion of your birthday, and close enough to New Years Eve to make it so you never had a birthday party that didn’t involve staying up until midnight. Or no party at all because people were all partied out.
And yet…I can’t imagine my birthday any other way.
I will never know what it means NOT to share my birthday with those holidays. And really, I am okay with it. I tried celebrating my half birthday in July…it was odd. It felt strange to celebrate only me, not in combination with anything else…it was actually really uncomfortable. I can’t imagine that kind of pressure year after year, birthday after birthday. ha.
So now I’m a mom. I have two boys, the first one was born the day after Easter and consequently celebrates his birthday near that holiday each year. My second boy was born two days before Thanksgiving. And this year, his 1 year old birthday fell exactly on Thanksgiving day.
So I guess because of my own birthday experience being so closely tied into holiday celebrations…I know with no one telling me, what a bummer it is and what a joy it also is. So as we celebrate Thanksgiving and also the birth of my son on the same day, all I can think of is the word “Embrace”.
Rather than try to celebrate them separately, or try to distinguish the events from each other…I have decided to embrace that these two events go together. While everyone else was thinking of what they were thankful for, I already knew what was first on my list this year, I thank God for my son Lucas and the wonderful first year of his life I was able to experience and be apart of. We ended the day with birthday singing and presents torn open by baby hands. It really was a great thank-irthday 
Sweet as pie!
